History of Sicily - Spanish Period

Spanish Period

With the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon in 1479, Sicily was ruled directly by the kings of Spain via governors and viceroys. In the ensuing centuries, authority on the island was to become concentrated amongst a small number of local barons.

The viceroy had to overcome the distance and poor communication with the royal court in Madrid. It proved almost impossible for the Spaniard viceroys both to comply with the demands of the crown and to satisfy the aspirations of the Sicilians — a situation that also was apparent in Spain's colonies in Latin America. The viceroys secured territorial control and sought to guarantee the loyalty of vassals through distributing patronage in the form of offices and grants in the name of the king. The monarchy, however, also exercised its power through royal counsels and independent entities, such as the agents of the Inquisition and visitadores or inspectors. Local spheres of royal influence never were clearly defined, and various local political entities within the viceregal system competed for power, rendering Sicily often ungovernable.

The 16th century was the golden age for Sicily's wheat exports. Inflation, rapid population growth, and international markets brought economic and social changes. In the 17th century Sicily's silk exports exceeded its wheat exports. Internal colonization and the foundation of new settlements by feudal aristocrats in Sicily was notable from 1590 to 1650. It involved the redistribution of population away from the larger towns back to the countryside.

The baronage took advantage of increasing population and demand to build new estates, based mostly on wheat, and the new villages were inhabited mostly by landless laborers. The foundation of estates was a means toward social and political prominence for many families. The towns people initially welcomed the process as a way of alleviating poverty by draining off surplus population, but at the same time it led to a decline in their political and administrative control of the countryside.

Sicily suffered a ferocious outbreak of the Black Death in 1656, followed by a damaging earthquake in the east of the island in 1693. Sicily was frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa. The subsequent rebuilding created the distinctive architectural style known as Sicilian Baroque. Periods of rule by the crown of Savoy (1713–1720) and then the Austrian Habsburgs gave way to union (1734) with the Bourbon-ruled Kingdom of Naples, under the rule of Don Carlos of Bourbon (later Charles III of Spain).